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GARAGE SALE PROMOTING: FOR QUICK, EASY CASH!Pick almost any city or town in the country. Drive through any middle class neighborhood or residential area on any weekend. You're sure to spot at least a half dozen garage sales. And what's being sold at these garage sales? The accumulated "junk" that a lot of people no longer use or want taking up space in or around their homes. All it really takes to hold a profitable garage sale is some of your time and an awareness of a few merchandising tactics. But to be really profitable you must have know how and exercise careful planning. First, let's look at some of the background. Everyone accumulates items that other people are searching for, and are willing to buy. These items range from discarded or outgrown items of clothing to furniture, tools, knick-knacks, books, pictures and toys. Take an inventory of all the things you have "just taking up space" around your home. Make a list of items you'd be better off getting rid of. These are the things you are going to put up for sale. And if you are honest about what you really want and need, the pile will grow if you look over your household a second and third time! Remember that many garage sale offerings are items of merchandise purchased on impulse and later found to be not what the buyer wanted. It is the human condition: We discover too late that we don't like or have no use for things purchased. We "outgrow" in size or taste articles that once fit or pleased us. You'll find that many items offered at garage sales are gifts that have been given to the seller but are not really suited to the recipient. In other words, it will be to your benefit, before you stage your first garage sale, to take a week or so to browse through all the garage sales you can find. The problem is that most people just don't have the time or energy to gather up all the items taking up space around their homes, and putting on a garage sale is just too much bother and work. This is where you enter the picture. Your enterprise will be an ongoing garage sale of items donated and collected from those people who lack the initiative to put on garage sales of their own. In other words, you can become a "liquidator of people's junk" via super garage sales that you promote. We've already suggested that you spend a few weeks visiting the garage sales, swap meets, and flea markets in your area. Your purpose will be to see what is being offered for sale, what the people in your area are buying, and how the merchandise is being sold. One of the things to notice is how the merchandise is displayed. You'll also want to find out how the sellers handle customer browsing and the prices they charge for the merchandise offered. You'll discover most items tagged with a price sticker, but generally the seller is open to either price negotiation or a reasonable offer made by the customer. Begin your enterprise by cleaning out your own attic, closets, and basement or garage. Talk with your relatives and friends. Tell them what you+ re doing and ask for donations (or at least consignments) of unwanted items. It's here that you'll get your first experience in negotiating and you'll usually get enthusiastic cooperation. You'll find people explaining that they really don't have a use for a specific item, and really don't want to keep on storing it, but for sentimental or other reasons they have just hung on to it. It's best if at least two people handle the garage sale together. Greet the potential customers, show them around, and generally engage them in conversation. While you are out digging up more items for display and sale your co-worker can - mind the store." And if you are running a really big sale a third person can be very useful in selling and generally keeping an eye on things. The advertising angle is really quite simple and shouldn't cost you very much. Check area newspapers and select the one that carries the most ads for garage sales. You shouldn't concern yourself too much with competition from other ads. People who go to garage sales either go to all of them they can locate or else only to those within a several mile radius of their homes. You should run a small classified ad in the newspaper of your choice for about three days in advance and up through the day of your sale. Once you're operating on a full-time, every-day-of-the-week schedule you'll want to change your ad schedule and the style of your advertising. But in getting started, stay with small classified ads simply announcing the fact that you're holding a garage sale, emphasizing that you've got everything from A to Z - something of interest to everyone. Always remember that in order to increase your profits in any business you must increase rather than decrease your advertising. At the bottom line you'll find that the greatest single reason for a garage sale failing to turn a profit is the lack of promotion and advertising used to publicize it. Have an old-fashioned "sandwich board" type sign to display in front of your house when your garage sale is open for business. The purpose, of course, is to call attention to the fact that you're holding a garage sale and are open for business. This will pull in your neighbors (if you haven't already informed them) and attract passers by. Sandwich boards are also sometimes set out at key traffic intersections not far from the site of the garage sale. These will attract attention and point the way. Check your local ordinances to be sure that this sort of advertising is permitted. By all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in your area. It's better, and usually much more profitable, to take the time to make up an attention grabbing circular that you can post on these bulletin boards than just to use a scribbled 3 by 5 card announcement. Pick up some "transfer lettering." Go through your newspapers and old magazines for interesting illustrations, graphics and pictures. With a little bit of imagination and flamboyance make up an 8 1/2 by 11 poster announcement of your sale. When you have it pasted up take it to a quick print shop and order several hundred copies. A small print order should be well under twenty dollars. If you make this circular/poster up with versatility and long-time usage in mind, you can use it over and over again simply by pasting on a new date. Your signs have to be effective, but you have to remember to keep them simple. Don+ t try to cut corners on your signs. Signs announcing and pointing the way to your garage sale should be placed at each intersection within a one mile radius of your sale location. If it takes 50 signs then make 50 signs. The important thing is to let people know that you're holding a garage sale. Signs can be made simply by cutting and using the sides of cardboard boxes and writing on them with a heavy felt tip marking pen. Make it easy for your signs to be seen and for people to read what's on them. About all you really need is great big block letters reading "GARAGE SALE" with the street address and an arrow pointing in that direction. Don't think for a minute that people driving by are going to stop and read a lot of "stuff" you've written on your sign. You just want them to see your sign and proceed in the direction necessary to reach the location of the sale. They'll be moving by your sign too fast to see or read anything else you may have written. You should give your sale some flair. Put some posts up across the front of your property and run some twisted crepe paper between them. Better than crepe paper, run brightly colored ribbons. Invest in some colorful pennants and fly them from temporary flag poles. And don+ t forget the balloons! Make your garage sale a fun kind of event, with clusters of balloons anchored to your display tables and racks. Be sure to "float" them well above the heads of your customers as they're browsing through your merchandise displays. Cover your display tables with colorful cloths. Don't hesitate to use bright colors and busy patterns. Regardless of what you sell, effective display (packaging the event) is still absolutely essential to your success. The secret to outstanding garage sale profits is in having the largest selection of merchandise possible. And part of the process is taking great care in displaying and labeling your merchandise. You cannot simply dump items haphazardly on a table, sit down, and expect to realize great profits. The people doing the most business and holding the most sales are the ones with interesting displays, action, and color. Have as wide a selection of colors as possible in your clothing racks, and mix them for "rainbow" effect. Make sure that your jewelry items shine and sparkle. Arrange them in and on jewelry boxes and jewelry ladders. Show off your jewelry while keeping it neatly organized. Some people have even gone so far as to hook up battery operated 'lazy susans' and arrange their jewelry on these. Having the jewelry slowly turn on the 'lazy susan' will not only catch the eye, but it will catch the light as well, making an attractive display even more attractive because it sparkles and gleams. Study the methods of display used by "rack jobbers" in the stores in your area. These are wire racks that usually hold card packaged items. Such a rack or kind of display would lend itself beautifully for anchoring a cluster of balloons. Keep such things in mind and build your individual displays as part of the whole. Make it pleasing to the eye as well as convenient for your customers to browse through and select the items that appeal to them or catch their fancy. At many garage sales some of the merchandise (particularly the clothing) is dirty. Notice this when you visit other people+ s garage sales, and then take it upon yourself to make sure that every item - positively everything you show is clean and sparkling bright. A bar of soap, a bucket of water, and a few old rags will do wonders for shop tools, garden equipment, and bicycles. The same goes for furniture polish on old furniture, and a run through the washing machine for all washable clothing. It is advisable to determine a price for each item before you set it out for display. Mark that price on a price tag and attach the price tag to the item. Your prices should also always be rounded off to more or less even numbers such as: 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $1.50, $2 and so on. In other words, don't ask for 35 cents, 95 cents, or $1.98, or any of that sort of pricing. Needless to say, you should always mark everything up by 100% or more. In other words, if you have acquired a particular item for $1, set a price of $2 or more on it. It is also a good idea to mark up your asking price from the bottom-line price you're willing to accept. Basically, the price marked on the price tag at most garage sales is taken as the starting price from which the buyer and seller negotiate. Most garage sale promoters price their cheaper items at the bottom line price they will accept, and don't deviate from those prices as shown on the price tag. Then on the more expensive items - $2 and over - they mark up their asking prices by 20 to 40 percent and use that margin for negotiating with the customer. Some of the "extras" that contribute to the success of a garage sale include: Plenty of change, without which you'll lose a great many sales. A tape measure for people who want to know the exact dimensions of something (especially furniture) in order to fit it into a certain space they have in mind. Long extension cords and electrical outlets are necessary for your customers to "plug in" and try out the mixers, vacuum cleaners, hand tools, or other electrical appliances. Capture the attention of "cruisers" who aren't quite sure they want to park their cars and come browse. Look for some kind of interesting or unusual item to call attention to your sale - something you can set up or park in front of your home during your sale. Some of the displays we've seen along these lines include a horse-drawn surrey, a restored Model T, and an old farm plow. Anything of an unusual or interesting nature will do the trick for you. One couple we know put up a display using a manikin dressed in an old-time farm bonnet, long dress, and apron. This display depicted a farm woman washing clothes with a scrub board and two steel wash tubs. It's not hard to believe that this display really drew the crowds, and crowds always mean sales! Go wherever your imagination takes you. You have to be different and distinctive. You'll get lost in the hundreds of garage sales going on all around you if your sales look like the next half dozen. If you'll take the time to employ a bit of imagination, and set your sales up with the kind of flair we've been talking about, you will not only draw the crowds; you'll be the one reaping the most profits. As you think of beginning this garage sale business, remember this: It's almost a
compulsion with some folks to go shopping; to search for interesting, and sometimes rare
and valuable items. This fact alone will keep you as busy as you ever want to be, staging
and promoting garage sales. The market is so vast, and the appetite so varied, that
anything from a brass bedstead to a used diary of someone's long-forgotten grandmother
will sell (and sell fast) at garage sales. Put it all together, use a little imagination,
and you'll succeed in a very interesting and challenging endeavor! |
